Digital lighting technologies, i.e. illumination based on semiconductor light sources, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), today offer a viable alternative to traditional fluorescent, HID, and incandescent lamps. Recent advances in LED technology coupled with its many functional advantages such as high energy conversion and optical efficiency, durability, and lower operating costs, has led to the development of efficient and robust full-spectrum lighting sources that enable a variety of lighting effects. For example, fixtures embodying these lighting sources may include one or more LEDs capable of producing different colors, e.g. red, green, and blue, as well as a processor for independently controlling the output of the LEDs in order to generate a variety of colors and color-changing lighting effects, as discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,016,038 and 6,211,626, incorporated herein by reference.
Additionally, new developments in digital technologies have made the precise lighting control a reality. Consequently, light-based systems are used today to visually communicate information to individuals. For example, patrons waiting to be seated at a dining establishment are often provided with pagers that visually indicate when the staff is ready to seat them.
While advances in digital lighting technologies have given rise to precisely controllable lighting, the tremendous and ever increasing popularity of the Internet as a communication medium has led to the creation of a host of social networking websites designed to meet the needs of individuals looking to form social relationships. Despite providing numerous benefits to individuals interested in forming remote social connections, such web-based social networking technologies lack the ability to seamlessly integrate into existing establishments, such as bars and clubs, which are designed to facilitate the formation of social connections between individuals physically present in the same location. Such social networking technologies fail to seamlessly integrate into existing social environments because, among other reasons, they often require their users to pay a degree of attention to the formation of remote social connections that renders the users unable to simultaneously engage in meaningful social interactions with individuals physically present around them. Consequently, individuals wishing to form social connections are left to choose between visiting social establishments such as bars or clubs on the one hand, and using one or more existing social networking technologies on the other hand.
As a result, there is a dearth of technological solutions that allow individuals to both engage in meaningful social interactions with others in their physical presence and simultaneously form remote social connections. This is partly because current solutions designed to help individuals form social connections do not simultaneously leverage advances made in other areas of technology, such as controllable solid-state lighting and communication networks. Therefore, there exists a need in the art to combine advances made in the realm of controllable solid state lighting with advances made in the realm of networked communications.
Along with advances made in the realm of networked communications, developments in the area of wireless communications, and, more particularly, broadband wireless communications, have made the wireless exchange of content-rich data, such as video data, a reality. Wireless broadband communications technologies, when used in combination with personal mobile electronic communication devices such as cellular phones or personal digital assistants, provide individuals today with the ability to almost instantaneously and dynamically share information about themselves.
Despite the availability of such technologies, there currently exists no adequate solution to problems involving the identification, under time constrains, of short-term social connections in public spaces, in order that identified individuals may thereafter engage in social activities of mutual interest. For example, individuals who are traveling alone on business may crave the company of other individuals with similar interests with whom to participate in social activities such as visiting a museum or playing a round of golf. However, given that (i) such individuals may have only a few hours of recreational time, and (ii) such individuals may be unable to schedule the recreational time far in advance, currently available social networking technologies, which are often designed without taking such time constraints into account, do not offer viable solutions under such circumstances.
Moreover, although useful in finding longer-term companions, conventional social connection technologies are poorly suited to help individuals quickly identify and contact others who are (i) in the same vicinity, and are (ii) presently available (or available within a relatively short duration) to engage in one or more social activities of mutual interest. Additionally, as currently available social networking technologies do not leverage the power of controllable solid-state lighting, such technologies are incapable of visually identifying for an individual, potential social contacts present in the individual's physical environment. Hence, such technologies are unlikely to be effective in the often crowded public spaces, such as hotel lobbies and train stations, where they are likely to be needed. There is consequently a dearth of technological solutions enabling individuals in public spaces to instantaneously identify and communicate with proximally present individuals who share similar interests.